Posted on 06/05/2003 10:34:33 PM PDT by LdSentinal
Dealing a potential blow to Downstate Democrat John Simmons, former Democratic gubernatorial nominee Glenn Poshard said Tuesday he's leaning toward supporting rival U.S. Senate candidate Dan Hynes.
"As far as endorsing anyone officially, I will wait until the candidates all declare, but certainly I would have to say that I'd be leaning toward Dan, if he officially decides to run," said Poshard, a former congressman from southern Illinois. "Dan has been a friend of mine for years and has been helpful to me, and I like what he has done as state comptroller."
Simmons still has a shot at winning over southern Illinois' other Democratic powerhouse. Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) said he hasn't decided whether he will make an endorsement in the contest--but he heaped praise on Simmons.
"John is a very attractive candidate," Costello said.
Simmons, 35, is the millionaire trial lawyer who surprised Democrats last month by jumping into the race to succeed Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald. A resident of suburban St. Louis, Simmons is the only Democrat from Downstate in the race. The six others are from Chicago.
"Having a popular former elected official on board with Dan is going to be extremely helpful toward our campaign," said Chris Mather, Hynes' spokeswoman.
Poshard, 57, said he never heard of Simmons and doubted Downstaters would flock to his candidacy as they did Poshard's in 1998.
"I can't imagine somebody just jumping in and carrying all of Downstate with no service in the party at all," Poshard said. "In my case, I was a familiar figure to the Downstate people, you know, and I worked really hard. . . . For somebody's that's paid their dues and [is] perceived to have paid their dues, that's one thing to Downstaters, but somebody who is jumping in because they maybe have the money to run or they're wanting to run with no background and no experience and no base--never having really paid their dues--I don't think they'll be looked upon by Downstaters in the same light."
Other announced or potential Democratic candidates include state Sen. Barack Obama, former Chicago School Board president Gery Chico, millionaire investor M. Blair Hull, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas and Joyce Washington, a health-care executive. Republican Matt O'Shea, mayor of Downstate Metamora, is also talking about running in the Democratic primary.
Simmons declined to comment on Poshard's remarks.
But Costello sung Simmons' praises, saying he has known him for years as a successful lawyer who has been active in community affairs in southern Illinois.
"He is a young man with a lot of energy, and I think he is--from what he has told me--he is very much committed to devoting the next year and a half to this race," Costello said. "It is too early yet to make endorsements--at least for me to make endorsements. But Simmons by no means is someone [who] should be dismissed as a candidate [who] either cannot win or cannot run a serious campaign. . . . He's a player in this race. He's not someone who should be dismissed."
On the Republican side of the contest, state Sen. Steve Rauschenberger said he is more than 80 percent he will run, but is putting off a final decision until late July or early August.
"I've run into nothing yet that discourages me," Rauschenberger said. "The big challenge is whether we can pull together a fund-raising plan that we can execute."
Didn't this guy run to the LEFT of Bobby Rush in the Congressional seat in 2000 ? It's not the name, it's the rhetoric. Albeit remove the "b" and substitute an "s", and voila ! If he's of the same ilk as his fellow extreme-left African-American pols, he's probably anti-Semitic, too.
"Hopefully Bush will have some coattaills that would bring Jack Ryan or whoever along with him but I wouldn't count on it. The dems held an open seat here in 1980 and beat rino senator Percy in 1984 even as Reagan was whooping ass."
Yeah, GOP Presidential coattails have never amounted to much in IL, but Percy was such an anti-Zionist kook that I would've also voted for Paul Simon out of disgust. The GOP has nominated rather poor candidates for Senate since Ev Dirksen's death, which I've spoken about on numerous occasions...
Durkin, Durbin, Durbin, Durkin. George Ryan, Jim Ryan. *sigh* Wouldn't it be nice if we could come up with candidates whose names don't sound like the incumbents ? Now we've got Jack Ryan... Jeez... :-|
"As to Obama he did run against Rush. I'm not sure if it was from the left (that's very hard to do) his schtick was that he was young and energetic the same things that Rush used to beat his predecessor. I heard he's very apt at masking his communist agenda with moderate rhetoric. Neal said he could "bridge the racial divide" or somesuch crap."
Y'know, the South Side of Chicago used to send respectable African-American Republicans to office. The 1st ain't had a decent Congressman since Oscar DePriest left office in '34.
Bingo, although down here in the South, they remained Republican until the early '60s (the Black vote was part of what helped Nixon carry TN over JFK in '60). (My FR homepage has a dedication to African-American Republicans. Yes, that's a shameless plug). Hopefully, we'll bring them on back soon.
"At least Jack Ryan might get confused with the Tom Clancy character and not the lordhighrino George Ryan."
Albeit why did the last guy to play him have to be that moron Ben Affleck, 'Rat scum ? Of course, Alec Baldwin played him, too, and he's worse. I'm afraid this Jack's claim to fame is being the man who lost Jeri, and that's worse than losing an election... :-(
He ran to the right of Rush. Rush is a "former" black panther, hate-whitey candidate and Obama is a mulatto candidate who ran around saying he would "speak for all the voters" Several white Republicans were thinking of "crossing over" to vote for Obama because they knew a Republican has no chance of winning here so they were gonna back the most "moderate" Democrat.
I think Obama would be pretty far left if he was elected though, and was just going through the "moderate" persona to expand beyond Rush's narrow consituency. It would have worked except Rush recruited more black Democrats in the primary to split the opposition to him.
Did you know Rush's mother was a Republican ? So many radicals of today that were brainwashed in the '60s had respectable Republican parents.
"I think Obama would be pretty far left if he was elected though, and was just going through the "moderate" persona to expand beyond Rush's narrow consituency. It would have worked except Rush recruited more black Democrats in the primary to split the opposition to him."
That race almost reminds me a bit of the other '92 primary contest between racist and anti-Semitic incumbent Gus Savage and Mel Reynolds. Reynolds ran as the "moderate", but scarcely voted any different after he deposed Savage (conversely, I think Rush voted further to the left of incumbent Charles Hayes, whom he defeated). These aren't really ideological races, just contests of personality and better organization. It's really a shame, since until African-American voters stop electing these hustlers, criminals, and charlatans, not a damn thing is ever going to change in these districts.
Heh. The switch was over Goldwater. We lost one of our stalwart Black Republicans on my homepage (Z. Alexander Looby) who went and backed LBJ over him. Anyone who knows the facts knows Goldwater wasn't anti-Black or anti-Civil Rights, he was taking a principled stand against parts of the '64 CRA. By then, unfortunately, the "you're either with us 100% or you're not with us at all" mentality was taking hold. The 'Rats and the media (despite the former clearly being less pro-Civil Rights) crucified the GOP and eventually it no longer mattered how much the GOP did for Blacks, they were perceived as anti-Black. I once had a former Gov. from DE (a bit of a RINO who switched to the 'Rats in a fit of pique) inform me that he literally bent over backwards for Blacks, gave them everything they asked for without question (even siding with them when rioting occured in major cities across the country in the late '60s), that after all of that, they still voted for his 'Rat opponent in '72 costing him reelection. His contacts in the Black community thanked him for all his help and said, "Sorry, but we just can't get past the party label." Utterly galling.
"I had some book about liberals saying what they really think. It quotes LBJ saying on airforce one to a dem governor that the civil rights act would "keep those (expletive)s voting democratic for the next 200 years"."
But I think he also similarly realized that they would be destroying the Democrat party in the South with White voters.
"As to Jack Ryan, Harrison Ford was the best one. Of course he has also shown himeself to be a pinko. :/"
Yeah, though ignoring Baldwin's politics (hard to do now, less so a decade ago), he was pretty good in 'Red October', but then I enjoy it because of Connery...
"I think think real Jack Ryan's divorce probably had to do with conflicting careers."
Yeah. He didn't want to move to L.A. But would you give up Jeri for your career ? Crazy.
Barone's Almanac of American Politics. Never get into a discussion of politics in the last 30 years without it. :-) She was an active GOP Precinct Captain, in fact (y'know, a knock and drag chieftain). Black Republicanism didn't die in the '30s in Chicago, it did manage to hold until same as in the South into the '60s, just not with the same fervor as earlier. It largely existed because of the proportional representation of the State House that was in place until the early '80s, which meant that no matter how 'Rat a district was, a GOPer would be elected (problem was that some of those Republicans from those districts were really 'Rats and when it came time for important votes in Springfield, they'd make themselves scarce -- I think downstate Republicans wreaked similar havoc with their "'Rats"). Unfortunately, after the late '60s, the Black vote in Chicago (and elsewhere) became far more polarized and radical. Whereas before, some suburban lawmakers of the Henry Hyde ilk in the legislature and even Harold Washington types were able to work together for the benefit of both their areas, but that's all gone now.
Yup. Both Peterson and Sen. Caleb Boggs lost reelection that year despite the smashing Nixon win (CO was also a mess where we lost a Conservative GOP Senator in favor of a radical liberal Republican legislator turned 'Rat, though he was promptly turned out in '78, but Biden never was (and shame on Pete DuPont for not dispatching him, the only GOPer who could !).
"I don't know if I'd move to Southern California for anyone. Maybe she's a Dem. I wouldn't marry a dem unless Cupid pulled out his love moab on me. :o"
I think if most of us had had a shot at Jeri, we'd move to the south side of Hell to be with her. =8-)
Dude! Long before the primary. Psychic!
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